Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A Book Potluck

Books are social creatures. They need to meet and be around people. They can't sit around on the shelf forever. It's bad for their health. Just think of all that dust!

Apparently, my little neighborhood understands this. We brought together (like a book potluck) over 100 children's books for the Snohomish Book Cafe. Board books, easy readers, middle grade, YA...you name it. The bottom line - that's over a hundred children who will get their hands on a free book throughout the summer!

Imagine what we can do by this time next year.

So keep 'em moving, folks. Get those books off the shelves. Get those pages turning! Read them, love them, share them. Send them out into the big, wide world. Oh, the places they will go...

Thank you, neighbors. I hope this will become an annual book potluck tradition!

Cheers =)

The Snohomish Book Cafe brings books to children
at various locations within Snohomish County, WA

Hey y'all!

This is how you add 5 inches to your height. Courtesy of the 80s.

Bio (updated!!!)

Stephanie is a Louisiana girl gone gypsy. She loves being a mom, writing children's books, and watching yo-yos in space videos. You can find her here, there, and everywhere. And sometimes nowhere (which is really somewhere). She was last seen in the Pacific Northwest.

Bio (the long version)

Tip: There are many helpful webinars offering great tips for writers. The Children's Book Academy is one of them and they suggested an activity: to write a fun (and very brief) bio. Here is my original and you can see right away that it is way too long. But I'm keeping it as a comparison. See above for the new and (somewhat) improved. Is a writer ever satisfied?!

I was born in Louisiana, where my single working mother (a school librarian) instilled in me a love of reading (and gumbo). My summers were spent in Texas, where my father (a musician) instilled in me a love for Beethoven and Stevie Ray Vaughan.At the age of ten, I moved to Florida and lost my southern accent. The puffed sleeve dresses and sashes were also put away. Oh, the depths of despair! as Anne Shirley would say. But books and music were my refuge, and I soon adapted and made some life-long friends. Kindred spirits.

In college, I studied biology and joined the science club. I fell in love with the Florida Everglades and thought about becoming an Oceanographer or Environmentalist. However, I soon married, started a family, and one day, I woke up barefoot with four children, living in Arkansas. It happens...

I soon fell in love with the natural beauty of Arkansas (click here) and became a children's book writer. I joined the SCBWI, took creative writing and literature courses at UALR, and met some really great people. Kindred spirits, in fact...

Now I live in the Pacific Northwest - a life long dream come true! I attend the University of Washington and hope to complete my degree in Early Chilhood & Family Studies. I love exploring this beautiful part of the country and getting to know some fellow Western Washington writers through my critique group and local WWA-SCBWI events. There are kindred spirits everywhere. One only needs to be brave enough, and open enough, to find them. =)